The invention relates to a turret winder for pressure-sensitive tape of the class disclosed in R. W. Young U.S. Pat. No. 3,472,462, issued Oct. 14, 1969.
In turret winders as made heretofore, the core-supporting mandrels are removably coupled to the turret. In order to remove the wound rolls of tape from the machine, the loaded mandrel is removed from the turret by an operator. The operator then strips the wound rolls from the mandrel and slidably inserts new cores onto such mandrel, after which he recouples the mandrel to the turret. In the case of long mandrels carrying a relatively large number of wound rolls, two operators are required to safely remove the mandrel from the machine. Thus, in a machine having a winding cycle of 50 seconds, the operators may be required to lift and carry a total weight of many tons over an eight hour work shift. This tedious and somewhat hazardous task is eliminated in a machine made in accordance with this invention as the loading of new cores onto a mandrel and the stripping of the wound rolls is done automatically without removing the mandrels from the machine. This arrangement also results in a shorter, overall winding cycle, thereby advantageously increasing the output of the machine over a given period of time.